How Come Cats Leave Their Mouths Open After They Smell Something?

Rags used leave his mouth open after he would smell things quite frequently, and I came to hate it because it was often after smelling urine or another cat’s butt. But, when I found out what he was doing, I thought it was pretty rad.

You know what I am talking about – where they leave their mouth slightly open and then sort of daze off for a second and then lick their nose and close their mouth again?

Last week, I ran across the street to a neighbor’s house to grab their recycle bin that had been at the curb for a few days – I figured they were out of town, so I put the bin behind their house and came back home. When I came back home, Charlie would not stop smelling me and I

Caymus still taking it in. April 17, 2010

couldn’t figure out why until later when I had stopped by my parents house and Caymus couldn’t leave me alone either – Caymus never shows attention like that, so I knew I had something on me. Came to find out that the recycle bin had been sprayed by a male cat and I had the smell of urine on my pants – LOVELY.

So when I came home, I immediately changed out of my

Trigg Using His Jacobson’s Organ

pants and had Charlie and Trigg give them a good whiff, so that I could get a photo for this post!

There’s a fantastic website called, Pet Tails that lays this out more in detail and that’s where I got this information.

The act of opening the mouth and drawing up the air to the Jacobson’s organ is called the “flehmen reaction”.

Charlie using his Jacobson’s organ

Essentially, the cat is opening her mouth to suck in the air into the Jacobson’s organ and take a really deep sniff of the odor.

Charlie’s flehmen reaction

This special sensory organ called the vomeronasal organ or Jacobson’s organ allows a cat to have 14 times the sense of smell of a human. The Jacobson’s organ which consists of two fluid-filled sacs that connect to the cat’s nasal cavity is located on the roof of their mouth behind their teeth.

The reason they look dazed for a second or two is because they can learn a lot of information about their surroundings through their sense of smell. They mark territory using the scent glands on their cheeks and paws. The glands

Charlie licking his nose after the flehmen reaction

secrete pheromones, which are chemical substances that stimulate a behavioral response, such as an avoidance or aggressive reaction. Pheromones are also found in saliva, feces, and urine. When cats “spray” it’s another way they are marking territory.

Have you caught your kitty with his or her mouth open? What were they smelling when you did? Or did you know what they were smelling?

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Hi, I’m Jenny Dean, creator of Floppycats! Ever since my Aunt got the first Ragdoll cat in our family, I have loved the breed. Inspired by my childhood Ragdoll cat, Rags, I created Floppycats to connect, share and inspire other Ragdoll cat lovers around the world,

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Comments (23)

Ha, this is perfectly timed, I just explained recently to my husband about this phenomenon……our kitties only do it when they smell something gross, but it is so funny to see them doing it! I will try to get a picture next time 🙂

That’s a very common behavior for kitties! They do it anytime they smell something exceptionally interesting and/or new…the opening of the organ allows them to truly “savor” the scent. I think it is adorable! Raina doesn’t do it so much but will on occasion make her “funny face” when I come back after visiting new cats. 🙂

Thank you for that imformation on the cats smelling senses. I was always wondering what exactly was making them do that..They always get this strange look on their face kind of creepy sometimes..Horses do the same kind of thing but curl their top lip and head way up….Critters are so funny sometimes…

Thank you so much for this explanation. My new kitten was just doing this when I was trying to eat some pineapple. He came up to me being very curious of course and so I showed him a piece. He sniffed it through the nose, but then I saw him suddenly sit up, open the mouth, and yes have that daze of stupor. It was cute, but I was like, “What are you doing?” I literally thought for a moment that he had licked it and it was just too tart or acidic for his little tongue =) Thanks again!

Okay I have a couple of photos =) And apparently interesting stories.
My kitten does that thing with his mouth with anything new he is smelling. He was smelling my clean laundry that I placed on my bed to fold and he made that face:

Very interesting. A lot of other animals and reptiles do this as well, from horses to snakes. It’s also part of why cats and dogs cope much better with blindness than humans – their other senses (including smell) are so much more actue. Apparently scientists did a study and found that blind cats with whiskers, where better at catching mice than sighted cats with no whiskers (I assume they must have been good mousers to start with! )
Grace x

I knew the Jacobson organ thing, and thought it was really interesting. Then my friend Demian started calling it “ass face,” and that’s all she wrote. Now the only way I can remember the real name is when I look it up online. For ever more, it will be known in my house as, “Oh, look! Diamond has ass face!” Classy,I know.

Fascinating post, Jenny! I have never noticed this in any of the cats we’ve had (and neither has my hubby)…probably because we weren’t paying close enough attention. You can betcha I’ll be watching for this now, though! So very interesting! Thanks for the great info on this behavior!!! 🙂 <3

Love to see this reaction on my girls. Happens when we’ve been out to the zoo sometimes. I purposely let them take a whiff and they get that reaction. So funny! Wish I could smell what they smell sometimes, but most of the time, am pretty glad that I can’t! Thanks for the interesting post!♥♥♥

Very interesting! Isabella has a shoe fetish and does this whenever anyone takes off their shoes. She stuffs her head into their shoes and then she comes up for air like it was really bad in there! I always give my sister a bad time…maybe I won’t tell her the REAL reason Isabella does this! 🙂

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Hi, I’m Jenny Dean, creator of Floppycats! Ever since my Aunt got the first Ragdoll cat in our family, I have loved the breed. Inspired by my childhood Ragdoll cat, Rags (pictured with me), I created Floppycats to connect, share and inspire other (Ragdoll) cat lovers around the world, hoping we all utilize this community to make a better life for our cats and for us with our cats and to make some great friendships along the way as well.